Leslie Jones Returns To Twitter After Bout Of Online Harassment

Instead of catching ghosts (or Pokémon) this week, Ghostbusters star Leslie Jones had the unfortunate task of busting the most unseemly creatures 2016 has to offer: Twitter trolls.

Yesterday, Jones visited Late Night with Seth Meyers to discuss the Twitter trolls she encountered in response to the Ghostbusters movie. With her recent return back to Twitter just a few hours before, the actor highlighted the injustice of “a gang of people jumping against you for such a sick cause.”

“If I hadn’t said anything, nobody would have ever knew about this,” Jones said to Meyers.

Now unless your phone is down or you’ve impulsively decided to embark on a social media cleanse, you’ve probably noticed that #LoveForLeslieJ has been floating around the Twitterverse. The Leslie Jones Twitter controversy is one issue in particular that we feel everyone should know about from start to finish, so we’ve provided you with a brief rundown on everything that’s happened this week.

The revival of Ghostbusters hit theatres last Friday and garnered a lot of mixed reactions. Though many praised the use of an all-female cast, others voiced negative responses in regards to the actresses. While Melissa McCarthy, Kristen Wiig and Kate McKinnon all received their fair share of sexist hate, the maliciousness that Jones received was on another level.

Some people on here are fucking disgusting. I’m blocking your filthy ass if retweet that perverted shit. Just know that now bitches!!

On Monday, Jones spent much of her day battling sexist and racist Twitter users, who were sending her hateful comments. At first, Jones was simply blocking the offensive users, but after much thought, she decided to publish the hate she was receiving for all the world to see.

Fed up, Jones ended the night with a series of tweets that expressed her exasperation. One in particular finally reached the attention of Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, who asked the actor to send him a direct message.

Following her departure off the social media platform, fans and celebrities alike continued to tweet their support to Jones despite the rise of the hashtag #FreeMilo. The trending topic began after Twitter permanently banned Milo Yiannopoulos, the Breitbart Tech editor who was encouraging Twitter users to harass Jones.